Ahead of You, Forever
by Jupal
Summary: Rewritten edition of One More Word. "In her final moments, Blaise has a chat with Mal." Rated T for gore, albeit a little.
1. Running

**As stated in the summary, this is the revised edition of One More Word.**

**This edition has extra content not included before. Also, a scene has been revised (I thought the way I wrote it in the previous draft was… off.)**

**Like its predecessor, this is nowhere near perfect, and I thought the transition of point-of-view was awkward (the italics at the start and end of the whole story are meant to be some sort of detached prologue and epilogue, but I haven't done a good job), but I guess this will be my final attempt at fixing up the story.**

**I hope you enjoy this. Reviews are always welcome.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Cause of Death and its affiliated characters.**

**xxxxx xxxxx**

_The weather was great for hanging out in the park near the university._

_This fine Saturday morning, it was just the two of them. Blaise Corso was jogging, as she did almost every day. Just slightly behind her, to her left, was her best friend Malachi Fallon on his bicycle. The trees surrounded them on either side. It was like this every week, and it would never change._

_Now, Blaise was getting tired, but she still continued jogging. Mal took off the towel he had around his neck and offered it to her. She waved it off. Mal then checked his pedometer._

_They had already covered four kilometres' worth of distance._

"_Hey, Corso, how far can you run?" Mal wondered._

_Blaise grinned. "I'll always run in front of you! I'll be ahead of you, forever!"_

"_Then I'll always protect you." He meant what he said. _

"_Promise!" She laughed._

**xxxxx**

"Don't bother about me! Run, Blaise, run!" Malachi Fallon yelled to his fellow detective Blaise Corso. The leggy blonde rushed past in a blur, exerting all her effort to catch the infamous drug trafficker, Theodoran Blue.

The pair had already worked out the details before they began the manhunt for Blue. If one of them was to injure himself or herself in one way or another, the other was to continue the chase and go back for the injured party later. Judging how they were running amok at full speed in the forest, Blaise guessed that Mal had sprained his ankle.

_Careless! Well, I'll go look for him later._

The memory of the pair running in the park that morning rushed into her head. She slowed down, feeling injured.

_Mal said he'd protect me. But he failed to do so now. I'm alone in this. Really, Mal Fallon?_

She angrily swiped a tear from her eye. _Why do I care so much? _

Blaise shut off her emotions as she increased her running speed. She could tell Blue was already getting tired. She estimated she would catch up to him in two minutes, about a few hundred metres away.

And she was right.

Blue stopped to catch his breath. Blaise quickly snatched up a switchblade from her ankle strap and opened it. She was about to toss it at him when he started off again.

_Don't think I won't kill you!_

The moment she was right behind his back, Blaise Corso slashed the switchblade down Theodoran Blue's back.

"Aaaah!" The two of them tumbled down onto the hard ground and tussled. Blaise ended up on top, straddling Blue.

"Mal may be a Boy Scout, but I'm much more uncivilized!" She brought her switchblade down on his guts and he howled in pain. She might have neutered him. She proceeded to stab him everywhere she could. Blood spattered all over her, but she did not care a damn.

Blue threw a punch across his attacker's face. She did not flinch one bit.

"Don't touch me! Disgusting!" Repulsed, she stabbed him in the chest one last time and he thudded to the ground with finality.

Then she stood up and her emotions cleared. Horrified, she looked down at the bloodied body of Theodoran Blue. _How do I account for this? What will Captain Yeong say? This is my first assignment, and I've already screwed up!_

As she turned, she met the face of a man in his twenties pointing a gun at her. He was grinning a sadistic grin.

The first emotion she felt was dismay for her carelessness. _This is really, really bad. Of course Blue would have lackeys! Why didn't I check earlier?_

She shut off the fear that was getting to her and turned to run back towards where she had left Mal. She covered about fifty metres before she felt the sting of three bullets piercing her back, one after the other.

**xxxxx**

Mal, hidden behind a bush, was massaging his wound when the cry of three gunshots rang through the forest. Then all was silent.

_Damn, Blaise!_

He jerked up with much difficulty and started limping towards where his partner might have gone.

_Blue must have gotten her! Blaise, wait for me!_

**xxxxx xxxxx**


	2. Dying

**Uploading this second chapter on the same day as the first only because lots of you have read it before! No need to wait for updates.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Cause of Death and its affiliated characters.**

**xxxxx xxxxx**

Although over half an hour had passed since she'd been shot in the back three times, and her legs were profusely bleeding from getting cut by the tree branches, Blaise Corso was still alive. The lackey had disappeared, but she could not care less about that.

She was half-dozing, half-dreaming. Her family – her father, mother, and younger brother were all waving at her from the front porch of their house, one she'd lived in as a teenager.

She could tell her brother Joel was crying and saying, "Goodbye, Blaise. Goodbye." Both her parents were silent. This happened when Blaise was preparing to leave for training as a detective. Now it seemed a world so distant, she could never go back again.

_Oh God,_ Blaise thought, _how awful. I left them all alone. Hey, Joel, be a filial child, okay? Don't learn from your older sister who dumped her parents for a career. And don't be so spoiled._

_I'm not afraid, really. But, it's still kinda hard, dying alone like this…_

A voice whispered to her in her thoughts. _What about him?_

Him?

The scene changed to her previous office before she started working with Mal again. Her partner back then looked so dashing in a suit and tie. He had playful yet gentle brown eyes. That other time, she had a crush on him. He was preparing to go and meet a senior detective for a conference he was selected for. There was no one else besides them. Blaise said, "You have a beautiful girlfriend. You two make a great couple."

"Yeah?" He lifted his face and smiled. "You're prettier than she is."

Of course Blaise was happy to hear him praise her looks for the first time, but the fact he could tell another girl she was prettier also indicated how strong his relationship with his girlfriend was. She vaguely remembered feeling put off.

The scene changed again. She was at the park.

_Ah, college…_

Malachi Fallon's cheeks were stained with angry tears. He was not tall the way he was now, although he was still taller than Blaise, albeit just slightly. Someone had spoiled his favourite guitar, one his father had given to him as a kid.

"Come on, boys don't cry. Don't be such a wuss. Be strong. Come on. You want to go for a walk around this park?"

"Okay…" Mal wiped his tears and tagged along.

Once, when she seemed preoccupied, Mal asked her, "Something wrong, Blaise?"

Blaise thought about it for a moment. "What would you do if someone said they liked you?"

"I have no idea. Never happened to me."

"Don't you have a crush on someone?"

"No… not at this moment," he murmured.

Blaise then thought, _So I'm not even in the running?_

Whatever. "Oh. You should find someone you can confess to."

"I'm too chicken. I don't think so."

The scene changed again. Now they were in the bullpen of the SFPD, having a chat after their talk with Captain Maria Yeong regarding their new task on capturing Theodoran Blue. At some point Mal said, "I heard there's this supposedly hot guy that you were partners with before you came here." Blaise could tell he was implying she had a crush on that ex-partner. "How's it going?"

"No hope," she said. "He has a girlfriend. What about you? You still don't have one?"

"Leave me alone."

_We were always on the verge of being close. We both had a thing for each other, but… Am I just imagining things? At least I liked you. It was different from how I felt about my ex-partner. I wonder if you know what I mean._

Mal's face appeared. He was crying.

"Blaise, don't die."

_Come on guy, be a man. Boys don't cry. You might be bigger now, but you haven't made much progress._

Was it by the grace of God? Blaise came to her senses and opened her eyes.

Malachi Fallon was looking down at her in the soft evening light. Beyond Mal she saw the treetops, and in between them were fragments of the sky, now as blue as his eyes.

The first thing she realized was that Mal was not crying.

"How did you–"

As she tried to speak, she felt as if she was forcing open a rusty door. She did not have too long to live.

"–get here?"

All Mal said, "I managed." He knelt down beside her and gently lifted up her head. The entire left side of her body was numb now from the impact to the side of her head as she fell, all except for the palm of her left hand which felt weeds underneath. Had he carried her here?

Mal then asked quietly, "He got you?"

"It was his lackey," Blaise answered. "Be careful."

Mal nodded and said, "I'm sorry."

Blaise did not understand. She stared at Mal.

"I sprained my ankle while running and stopped to soothe it," Mal said, tightening his lips as if holding something back.

"But then I heard the gunshots. I knew then I'd made a life-changing mistake."

_Should I have stopped chasing Blue immediately and helped Mal? That would have delayed me though… and we would have broken our arrangement. He wouldn't have wanted that. _She had continued running at full speed, Mal yelling for her to run behind.

But it no longer mattered. Theodoran Blue was dead, his lackey had escaped either way and nothing could be done about it.

_Oh—_

Mal had limped here just for her. He'd taken a big gamble and risked his life. What if Blue actually went back for him? And when he said "I managed," it was a statement marking his achievement to tolerate the pain of his sprained ankle for thirty minutes. Just for her.

The thought made her want to cry. Instead, she did her best to form a smile on her face.

Blaise knew that she couldn't talk much anymore. She tried to come up with the best thing to say, but then an odd question popped into her mind and she blurted it out.

"Do you have a crush on someone?"

Mal's brows furrowed, and then he gently said, "I do."

"Don't say it's me."

Still looking sad, Mal faintly smiled.

"No, it's not."

_It's true_, Mal thought. He had not been telling lies. His one true love was Natara Williams, who was currently assigned on another case (so she was not able to be with the pair). She was also dating Oscar Santos, but that did not matter too.

Still, Blaise was his best friend, maybe even more than that.

"Well then…"

Blaise took a deep breath. She felt as if poison were spreading through her body, which strangely felt both chilly and incredibly hot at the same time. "Could you just… hold me tight? It'll be over soon."

Mal tightened his lips again before raising her up, hugging her tightly to his body with both arms. Her head was on the verge of falling back, but he held it up.

She felt like she could say one more thing.

"Stay alive, Mal."

_Dear God, can I have one more word?_

Blaise looked into Mal's eyes and grinned.

"You've become quite a stud."

"And… you're the most stylin' girl in the world."

Blaise smiled faintly. She wanted to thank him but she was out of breath. She just stared at Mal's sapphire eyes. She wasn't going to die alone. The last person to stay with her ended up being Mal. And she was grateful. She really was.

_Then that memory came rushing back to her again. Thinking of it twice in a day had to mean a lot. She had done her part of the pact. It was enough._

_It was nice while it lasted._

Blaise Corso remained in this position as she died approximately two minutes later. Her eyes remained open. Malachi Fallon held her limp, lifeless body and wept.

**xxxxx**

_When they were running in that park that morning, it seemed like they could be happy forever._

_It seemed like he could fulfil his promise to her._

_It turned out that she just had to be ahead of him, even in death._

**xxxxx xxxxx**

**Feel free to offer your opinions on Blaise if you haven't done so already! ;)**


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